Moving Forward
by higfig
Summary: There wasn't much to do in a post-apocalyptic world; luxuries were few and far between. There used to be only two choices for him to go with, join the army or live outside in the ruins of Japan, with monsters and vampires ready to take his head at any given moment. He'd already done both in the eight years since the world had collapsed, now he had his own agenda to put forward.
1. Chapter 1

Moving Forward Chapter 1

* * *

He'd gained a little shit in his class today. Well, it wasn't _his_ class, he was just a substitute, but that didn't matter.

The blond turned his head away from the blackboard, pausing in his writing, in order to give a displeased look towards the grumbling student. "Hyakuya Yuichiro, be silent during class."

It was obvious that the dark-haired teen was one of Guren's _—_ even if his consistently bad attitude wasn't a dead give away, the fact that Shinoa was purposefully seated directly behind him definitely was. Though it was refreshing to see the girl again, it had been about a month since he'd last seen her, in a surprisingly similar situation to the one now. Kimizuki was his name if he remembered, he had a shitty attitude too.

The legs of a chair grinded against the floor, an exclamation of both surprise and annoyance accompanying it soon after. Naruto turned once again, finding Yuichiro stood and glaring daggers at Shinoa.

"Hyakuya." He really hated having to call students by their last name, most were only two or so years younger than he was, it was awkward having to play adult for them. Sometimes he missed being a Captain in the Moon Demon Company, he could shout, fight and curse at anyone he wanted, so long as it didn't piss any of the Hiragis or higher-ups off.

"Shit!"

He didn't know how to listen. Naruto had never been one for taking disrespect and not doing anything about it. So, even when Yuichiro had taken his seat and finally shut his mouth, he didn't continue the class, instead slipping the English book shut and placing it on the desk in front of him.

For a post-apocalyptic Japan that had no communication with people who spoke English as their main language, it was surprising how how it had held up and how relevant it still was, despite its difficulty to learn.

"Hyakuya." He'd gained the student's attention this time, almost immediately, but he didn't like the look he was getting. "Come up to the front of the class."

With a grunt and a huff, Yuichiro did as he was told, shoving his hands in his pockets as he marched forward. "What?"

"Get on your knees, Hyakuya, and face the class." The blond ordered with a nice smile. Shinoa looked on smugly, though that wasn't really any different than usual. "You will apologize to everyone, and express how deeply sorry you are for disrupting them and their studies."

If looks could kill, Naruto was sure he'd already be six feet under.

Still stood, Yuichiro's eyes skimmed over the class, twitching when they reached Shinoa. "Tsk." He grumbled, visibly struggling with himself as he got down on his knees and bowed, declaring his half-hearted apology.

Well, it could've been better, but he was satisfied and would have to make do. "Good, you can return to your seat. But if something like this happens again, I'll have you clean every bathroom in the school with your bare hands."

* * *

"I hate him!"

He was still mad.

"Who?"

Shinoa was clearly amused, undoubtedly knowing exactly who he was talking about.

That pissed him off too.

"The stupid teacher."

"Naruto, huh."

He wasn't an expert on detecting the undertone of someone's words, but it definitely sounded like she knew the blond personally. "Do you know him?"

"Somewhat." She said, confirming his suspicions. "Lieutenant Colonel Guren is much more familiar with him than I am."

"Huh? Someone like that knows Guren?"

"Of course, but." Her brown eyes flicked over to the door, where the last remnants of the students were leaving. Their teacher had left before class had even ended with the excuse that he had somewhere to be, and of course none of the students kept on with their work, preferring to chatter and mess around. "Shouldn't you be following them and trying to make friends?"

"Friends are the last thing I need."

"Not if you want to join the Vampire Annihilation Squad." She quipped. "The Lieutenant Colonel told me that your family was killed by vampires when you were a child, and that you've had problems socializing since then because you're afraid that you might lose someone dear to you again." Another thing that pissed him off, Guren didn't need to go around telling everyone about his personal life. "You're so scared that you can't bring yourself to make friends, be part of a team, or find a girlfriend."

Yuichiro slammed his chair back and stood up, scowling, and snatched her shoulder. "Don't stick your nose in other people's affairs." He snapped. "Stop talking bullshit and tell Guren to let me join already, I've become strong enough to kill those scum."

"Ah." She smiled, bringing her hands out from behind her back with a folded over note in hand. Her smile wasn't pleasant, and only succeeded at pissing him off even more. "The Lieutenant Colonel knew you would say that and asked me to hand this message over to you."

He snagged it out of her hand, unfolded it and began to read through:

 _In the army, there's no use for a virgin who doesn't know the first thing about friendship, comradeship or love. Try to make at least one friend at school and introduce him to me, even though I doubt you'll get through with it._

Twitching, the dark-haired sixteen-year-old crumpled up the paper and slammed it onto the floor with effort. "Damn it." He groaned, panting from a combination of exerted annoyance and embarrassment. "Everyone is making fun of me!"

A thump sounded from behind him, like a body colliding with the cold, hard floor, and he turned to see one of his classmates on the floor looking up at the door, obviously frightened. He was small, and you could tell from just a single glance that he was a wimp. "P-please don't..."

"Haah..."

* * *

"I thought I might find you here."

"Don't bullshit me Guren." Naruto snorted, amused. "Someone came up here before, they weren't as quiet as they thought. Who was it? Mito? Shigure?"

"Sayuri."

"Ah." He backed away from the fence overlooking the ruins of what was once Japan and turned to face his former superior. It was kind of disappointing to find out how much the man hadn't changed since they'd last been face-to-face. He was still the same height, those few black bangs of his hair still fell in front of his cold, purple eyes. His black with red Japanese Imperial Demon Army uniform was still the same, too. "Should've sent Goshi." He tilted his head. "Or did you?"

"Who knows."

Naruto rolled his eyes. It wasn't like he'd have been able to tell even if it had been anyway. "You haven't changed. Still won't tell me anything." Sighing, he decided to bring up the topic of why he wanted to speak to Guren in the first place. "So what's the deal with the snot-nosed bag of bad attitude you put in my class?"

"Like you're one to talk about bad attitude." The blond rolled his blue eyes at the retort. "He's important. Important to humanity's survival, to me, and to you, too."

"Oh? Important to me?"

"You once told me that you had a dream that could only be fulfilled by someone else."

"I also once told you that you were that person, and look how well that turned out." He tapped his chest with his finger to indicate the failure, before bringing his arms out to his side and shrugging. "Besides, that was a long time ago. Who's to say it hasn't changed since then?"

"Something like that doesn't just change, nor are you that kind of person."

Naruto huffed and it made Guren smirk, he knew that he'd hit the nail on the head. His former superior had always been like that, able to see through people without any apparent trouble, it was also something that Sayuri and Shigure unanimously agreed on. "What do you want from me, Lieutenant Colonel? Do you need more of my blood?"

The last question had been a pseudo-joke, but he was kind of curious about it.

"No, we still have plenty of that." His eyes narrowed, expression more focused. "What I want is for you to come back under my command, Naruto."

"Still trying to dethrone the Hiragis?" Rhetorical question, he knew the answer to that already. Naruto scratched at the back of his head out of habit. "Either way, the answer's no. I left for a reason."

"You don't think Yu is capable enough."

"Yu?"

"The snot-nosed bag of bad attitude."

"Right." The blond shook his head. "No, I don't think that Hyakuya is capable enough, but that doesn't matter." Maybe it did, and it was probable that Guren knew he was spouting bullshit, oh well. He clicked his tongue. "Hyakuya." He repeated. "Why does it sound so familiar?"

Guren's lips twitched. Was he pleased that the name sounded familiar to him? "The Hyakuya Church."

That's all the Lieutenant Colonel gave him as a final clue, but it was enough. "Oh _—_ _that_ Hyakuya. The one that conducts human experiments on orphaned children?"

"Exactly."

"Is that why you think he's so important?"

"Naru-"

Interrupting the Lieutenant Colonel was an explosion, followed by a loud wooing alarm. _"Emergency warning! Emergency warning!_ " The speakers boomed all throughout the school. _"All students and personnel! A vampire has broken out of the vivisection laboratory close to the school!"_

"Oh damn."

"Are you going?"

"Do you have to ask?" Naruto sighed. "I'm a teacher here, I'm not going to let it kill any of the students."

"Haha, hearing you call someone a student sure is unsettling."

Naruto shrugged as he made his way past his old superior. "For you, maybe, but I've gotten used to being a substitute teacher."

 _"All students and personnel must leave the premise at once! Drinking blood will restore its vampiric power, do not attempt to approach it!"_

More bullshit, and Guren undoubtedly knew that, too. The truth was that teaching a bunch of civilians was all he had to fall back on, aside from crawling back to the army. A little over four months prior, Hiragi Tenri had forbade him from leaving the walls of Shibuya again under the excuse that he was nothing but a civilian who required protection, not that the General needed an excuse to get what he wanted.

It did make perfect sense, though, he'd been a Captain and the information on how the Japanese Imperial Demon Army worked alone would be enough to attract the attention of vampires _—_ and it had. News of a lone ex-Captain of the Moon Demon Company out in the ruins, alone, didn't stay quiet for very long.

He pushed the door at the bottom of the stairs open, moving past and ignoring the screaming students as they bolted for the closest exit.

Numerous assassination attempts had been made on his person, but he'd managed to come out on top every time, decapitating his would-be killers after the fact and mounting their heads on their own weapons. At first, it had been in an attempt to send a message for them to not bother him, but they had kept persisting and it soon became a pseudo-trademark and force of habit.

But then he'd been forced back into Shibuya by Hiragi Kureto and his squad under his father's orders. Kureto was a nasty piece of work, an asshole who pushed his rank and powerful family name wherever he could, as well as someone that both Naruto and Guren shared a mutual dislike for.

Several gunshots resounded throughout the hallways and he fastened his pace.

The blond had considered attempting to escape multiple times, but threw the idea out the window each and every time, even an attempt to leave Shibuya without permission would result in him being hunted. He'd already lived like that for nearly a year with just vampires, he didn't need the army on his ass too.

Turning the corner, he was met with a single body laid out on the floor, unmoving. Was he dead? Maybe, but it wasn't exactly easy to tell. It was a vampire he was dealing with, they weren't ones to paint the walls with the blood of their victims, that would be such a waste. Moving past it, he made his way into the classroom. His classroom.

"A kid?"

That had been the first thing he noticed.

A cute, brown-haired girl was unconscious on the desk up the front, and one of his students was near the back, shivering so much it looked like he was going to piss himself from fear. There were three others, all grouped together in a mound on the floor right next to the windows.

The furthest from him was that smart, cowardly kid—Yoichi?—who got bullied, and was always one of the highest scorers on tests. On the ground in front of him, missing an arm, was a little girl—pink hair, red and slitted eyes. A vampire.

Then, of course, there was Yuichiro. Sword in hand after a clean strike, presumably after having cleaved the vampire's arm off below her elbow.

The vampire moved, snatching her severed limb and clipping it back on in record time, before thrusting her other towards Yuichiro's neck.

"Ah." It didn't reach him in time, and she instead lost the limb all the way up to her shoulder, her legs and recently attached arm soon following. Before she could even so much as grind her teeth, she was forced into the corner of the room, back to the wall, little more than a stump of flesh. "You hesitated, Hyakuya."

"Naruto?"

"Sensei, to you." The blond reprimanded, bending down and offering a hand to Yoichi who gladly accepted it. "All you've got as a weapon is flat steel, no demon inside of it. You should have taken her other arm instead of conversing with Saotome here. Vampires can only reconnect what they've lost, not regenerate them back."

Yoichi smiled weakly. "Thank you, sensei."

"No problem." Naruto turned his attention to the little girl in the corner, her blood oozing from where her arms and legs used to be. He bent down to her level, smiling at her seething glare. "You've been a bad girl today, they won't take you back for experimentation now. But maybe that's a good thing." His lips thinned. "How old are you anyway? Two-hundred? Three-hundred?" She sneered, her mouth remaining shut. "Older? Really? You don't look it."

A few quick-paced footsteps made the blond take a glimpse behind him. Yuichiro was raising his sword, getting ready to decapitate her. "I hope today was worth dying for, Vampire."

Whether it would actually work or not was up in the air, most vampires would survive the removal of their head from normal weapons, and on the other hand he'd seen some of them just drop dead from it. Granted, the ones who'd died had been pretty weak. Either way, it was detrimental to what he wanted to try.

Yuichiro swung.

"Stop that." The blond twirled the hilt around with his fingers, shoving the tip of the blade deep enough through the floor so that it could stand on its own.

"Wh-"

"Shh." Naruto interrupted. "What were you thinking Hyakuya, swinging a sword around like that? It's dangerous, you could have taken someone's eye out." He couldn't help the smug feeling at the younger teen's flabbergasted expression. "Go sit down in the corner and don't move until I say so."

"W-what are you doing?!" Yuichiro snapped. Naruto blinked. "Why are you protecting the vampire? I was going to kill it!"

"With this?" He tapped the hilt of his student's blade. "Maybe, but I'd prefer you didn't."

He could almost hear the teeth grind in frustration. "Why?"

"Hey." Instead of answering, he decided to demonstrate. The vampire was blinking every now and then, was she trying to stay conscious? Well, it didn't seem as if she'd had any blood to get her power back, so maybe severing all of her limbs hadn't been the best of ideas. "Would you like to live?"

Yuichiro sputtered incoherently, but the substitute teacher shushed him.

"No."

"Are you sure?" He leaned back behind him, picking up her right arm from next to the leg of the desk, figuring out which one it was from the thumb placement. "You don't sound completely sure." Naruto pushed her pink hair out of the way, moving her severed limb to her shoulder. It twisted a bit, the skin on both ends reaching out and latching back on to reconnect itself. "You'll work for me, of course, but I imagine it'll be better than dying with your last choices in life being failures."

Her arm, hand and fingers all moved, responding perfectly to her commands, as if it had never been severed in the first place. "Work for you?"

She didn't sound approving of the notion, but it was better than a sneer, or being spat on, rather, which a few of the other vampires he'd given the same offer to had done. Disrespectful shits. "Yeah, only some light stuff—killing vampires, monsters, generally just helping me with people I don't like—ah, you'll need to be able to cook, too."

"Sensei." The blond perked up, hearing Yuichiro's voice calling him by his proper title. He would have thought that the teen would have preferred to tell him to fuck off than actually listen. "You're not seriously considering going through with this are you?"

"No, of course not." He responded. "There's nothing to consider. If she accepts, then she lives. If she doesn't, then I'll kill her here. Why?"

"She's a vampire." What a boring response. "And how many people do you think had to die today because she escaped?"

"I can probably count how many with my fingers, so not too many, but that doesn't matter." Yuichiro was far from looking happy, but the teen's feelings on the matter were irrelevant as far as he was concerned. "What matters is her usefulness. Even if she can only kill a single enemy, don't you think that's better than what would have been nothing?"

"But even still-"

"Be quiet, Hyakuya. If you want to kill her so badly then you can try, but you won't be able to until she refuses." Naruto turned his attention back to the bleeding, probably half-dead little girl. "You've had enough time to think now, what's your answer? You should probably answer quickly, Guren's squad won't be too far off, and if he decides that your prompt execution is more important than my needs, I don't know if I'll be able to keep you alive from the five of them."

"I can't cook."

"Then you can learn."

"Humans will call for my head."

"If they find out, sure. So don't let anyone know."

Her protruding fangs bit down on the outside of her lip, she shifted slightly with her arm, her red and slitted eyes surveyed the bloodied area—jumping from limb to limb.

"And what's happening here?"

Shinoa's head popped out from behind Guren, ever the smug one.

Naruto stood and faced the Lieutenant Colonel, opening up his palm as dark wisps of smoke began to emanate, elongating outwards a little over twenty inches in length, solidifying into a glinting steel blade, a thick fabric around the hilt and a sturdy guard. "I'm just waiting for an answer."

"Oh?" His eyebrow cocked in amusement and twitching smirk began to put the blond at ease, he didn't seem serious. Even so, he didn't drop his guard nor his weapon, just alone Guren was very dangerous to anyone he considered an enemy, infinitely more so with his squad at his back, which just so happened to be the case. "Is that a fight you're looking for?"

"Me?" He brought up his arms, shrugging actively, aware of Yu flinching out of the way so he didn't lose an eye from the flailing sword. "But I'm just a lowly substitute teacher, there's no way I could ever fight someone like the Lieutenant Colonel."

He got a flat look.

Goshi poked his head through the door, pipe in mouth, exhaling smoke. "There's no need to be like that Naruto."

When Guren's squad, plus Shinoa, began to move further into the classroom, he tightened his grip but otherwise remained still.

His former superior flicked his attention over to the student behind the blond. "Yu." He said. "What's it like being at a normal high school? Lost your virginity yet?"

"Gck." Said sixteen-year-old choked on his own spit, stomping forward into the middle of the classroom in order to scowl at the officer, red-faced. "I don't need that crap!" He snapped. "And I don't need friends, either. I took on that vampire-" He jabbed his finger in the direction of said vampire. "-and I would have gotten her if the stupid teacher didn't interfere."

"Yes."

"Hm?" Ignoring Guren picking on Yu for the time being, Naruto twisted his attention down to the pink-haired vampire. She was glaring at him, her red eyes having begun to dull, but at least she didn't look like she wanted to remove his head from his shoulders anymore. "What?"

"Yes." She repeated. "I'll work for you."

"And cook?"

"A-and cook."

"Good answer." He smiled, dropping his sword and letting it impale the floor much like he'd done with Yuichiro's, getting down and collecting her left arm as well as her severed legs, setting them down closer to her. "Before that." He said, extending his hand, little finger poking towards her. "Make me a promise. Promise that you won't disobey an order, no matter what it may entail, and make your words here today void."

"This is stupid." Grunting, she brought her arm forward, extending her own little finger to wrap around his. "I promise."

Soon after that, with the blond's aid, all of her limbs had been correctly reattached. Even still, even after having regained the apparent full functionality of all her limbs, her eyes remained dull without any sign of getting better. "Ah, blood." Shoving his collar to the side, he moved forward and hovered his neck not far from her mouth. "If you still plan on living, then dig in."

Naruto flinched when her fangs dug into his neck almost immediately, feeding as if she'd been on the verge of starvation. He could actually feel how much blood was leaving him at such a fast pace. Though if he was honest, the amount she was taking wasn't exactly surprising, she'd had all of her limbs severed and undoubtedly lost a lot of blood. If it had been a human, they'd have died within the time she'd been incapacitated.

A vampire's endurance really was something to marvel at.

"Kinky."

"Shut up Shinoa." He felt the little girl—his subordinate now, he supposed—disconnect from his neck, her head rolling back and colliding with the wall, eyelids shut and her breath light. She was unconscious. "Oh."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, oh." Naruto stood and faced Guren, not liking his amused expression for even a moment. Sayuri, Shigure and Mito were all behind him, remaining silent, while Goshi had taken both Yuichiro and Yoichi around to the back of the classroom, talking to the teens about his latest lay, going into vivid detail about the way she moved her hips and moaned. "You're not going to kill her."

If Guren were to make a move, then Naruto would have to snatch his blade from out of the floor, though it didn't seem like he would need to.

The Lieutenant Colonel's eyes flickered over to the unconscious vampire, lingering for a few moments before returning to land back on the blond's. "No, I'm not." The man had won, and they both knew it, his smirk was seriously starting to get on Naruto's nerves. "But if you don't want anyone else finding out that you're protecting an escaped experiment, then you'll rejoin the Vampire Annihilation Squad."

"Wha!" Yuichiro's voice shouted out, very obviously annoyed at the Lieutenant Colonel's words. "Why does someone like him get to join but I don't?"

"I told you before, didn't I?" Guren sighed, scratching at the back of his neck lazily. "You haven't even tried to make a single friend yet. Someone who can't even do that can't work in a team, nor do they belong in the army."

"You're not one to talk about teamwork." Shinoa quipped, hands behind her back, cheeky smirk firmly set in place. "You're the worst out of everyone here."

"Did I ask for your opinion?"

Well, at least there was that—Shinoa. Without much effort, she would always manage piss Guren off. "Fine." He said, dragging attention back to the topic, just as the Lieutenant Colonel was about to tell his grayish-purple-haired underling to go die somewhere. "I'll rejoin, as soon as the teacher I'm replacing returns."

Guren was smooth with words and could lie to just about anyone's face without them catching on, but this wasn't something he'd twist words for—he'd put his faith in the man, again, and believe that Yuichiro was capable of fulfilling his dream.

For that, he was willing to throw away his reasons for leaving his superior's command in the first place.

* * *

 **Chapter 1 done!**


	2. Chapter 2

Moving Forward Chapter 2

* * *

He could feel her fidgeting around on his back, was she about to wake up? "Hey." She wriggled around a bit, grumbling, her bare foot crunching into his thigh as she did so. She settled, her light cold breath tingling his neck. Well, at least it seemed like she'd gotten some of her strength back, if she had that much force in her legs while just moving around, still asleep.

His house wasn't anything to marvel at—it was hard to even call it a house. It was a unit, one bedroom, a small loungeroom, a kitchen and a bathroom. Fit for one person, nearly incapable of housing two, but that wouldn't matter for much longer. He was rejoining the Moon Demon Company, so he was probably going to just move back to where he used to live, which was more than adequate for two people.

Coming up on his door, he shoved his foot in the bottom left corner of the dodgy wood and pushed, bending it, until he heard a click and it swung open. He'd had a few break-ins before, but it really didn't matter, the only valuable things he had were food, bathroom essentials, a couch and his bed—not many would steal a roll of toilet paper, and he'd like to see a thief try and fit the couch or his bed through the doorway.

So the only thing that ever ended up getting taken was his food. While a bit of a nuisance, it wasn't any skin off his back—the army provided the bare essentials for him to continue living, and would replace it as he needed it.

In this post-apocalyptic world, there really wasn't any form of currency. The army was in control of everything. They'd provide necessities to keep you alive, but outside of that, if you didn't contribute by getting some sort of job, you'd be out on your ass.

That's how he'd gotten the unit. If he'd gone for something more important than he had, he probably would've gotten a much better place to live. Substitute teachers really weren't very high up on the ladder.

"Oh well." He kicked the door shut behind him, taking the first door on the right into his room. Taking a seat at the edge of the bed, he removed his hands from under the vampire's thighs, unlatching her arms from around his neck and proceeded to lay her down, throwing the blanket over her small form. "Ah..."

His lips thinned. A haunting thought occurred to him. She was still wearing the ragged clothes from when she was an experiment, she couldn't walk around like that—nor would he let her. He'd have to go pick up some clothes for her.

Obviously, this wasn't something he could do on his own.

He needed a female's aid.

Mito? Plausible, he vaguely remembered her lecturing him on something about women's clothing a few years ago, though he couldn't for the life of him remember what it was about.

Shigure? Nah, she was too monotone for his liking, and was usually busy anyway.

Shinoa? Good joke.

Sayuri? Well, it looked like he'd found his answer. He'd always liked Sayuri. She was kind of ditzy, but easy to get along with, and wasn't anywhere near as loud as Mito.

It was then that he came to a sudden, depressing realization.

He only knew four girls, and only one of which he actually got along decently enough with.

"I need to get out more."

* * *

"Get up." Something bounced off her forehead, crackling—plastic? It had some weight behind it. Her hand shot out from whatever was constricting her body, grasping the offending object tightly. "Careful with that." The same voice. She cracked her eyes open. "It's all you've got for the next few days. Break it and you'll be going without."

He was stood at the foot of the bed, all dressed up in the Japanese Imperial Demon Army's black with green military uniform. Messy blond hair, blue eyes staring down at her with amusement. "What do you mean?"

"I'd have preferred not to, but I'm joining the army's ranks again." The blond didn't sound overly joyful about it. "There's things I need to do, asses need to be kissed. Hopefully mine. That." He gestured towards what she had been holding. A plastic bottle, full of a red liquid. "Will sustain you while I'm gone."

"You're leaving me here, alone? You think I won't try to escape?"

"You can try, but you've already made a promise, there's no going back now." His words carried meaning, as if that stupid pinky promise she'd made actually meant something outside of just words. "Even if you were to, Guren's squad is here. You'll die, making yesterday pointless, and I'll move on with my life."

There was a few moments of silence, during which she slowly lowered her arm and dumped the plastic bottle beside her. "And when you get back?"

"I don't know." Was the admission. "We could get deployed as soon as I return, in which case." He backed up and leaned out the door, bending over, tossing a full, tied up garbage bag onto the bed. "You'll have to wear that. You can try it on but don't get it dirty, you've only got one set until you buy another. There's other clothes near the kitchen that Sayuri picked out, do whatever you want with them."

Silence ruled once more. Why was he just standing there, not saying anything? Did he not realize the awkward air he made around them? "Is that it?"

"Is that all you had to ask?" Was his immediate retort. He stared at her for a few moments before spinning on his heel and heading out of the bedroom's doorless doorway. "Yes, then—ah, actually." He stopped, looking over his shoulder back at her. "Your name." He said. "What is it?"

She blinked.

"Well?"

Her lips thinned. "Noin."

"Noin." He repeated, the word rolling off his tongue with ease. It was strange. "Right."

* * *

Shinya had taken on the task of driving him.

"Did you fill out those forms?"

"Yes, yes." He rolled his eyes. "I really don't see the point of it. The army already knows everything about me anyway."

"Sticking to procedure, you know that." Was he smiling? Naruto didn't bother to turn his head towards the driver's seat, but the Hiragi's tone sure indicated it. "I'm sure there's plenty they don't know, too."

"Not really." He flapped the documents in his hand around lazily. "It even tells me to describe my diet. They could probably figure out the exact shade of my shit if they wanted to."

"Haha."

The car zipped around the corner, ripping down the road for another kilometer before Shinya rolled to a stop. His door popped open, tilting upwards to make room. "You should get me one of these."

"You can't drive."

"Yeah I can."

"Going under the speed limit because you're afraid of crashing doesn't count."

"Whatever." Naruto huffed, shifting outside of the sleek car and making his way towards the stairs.

"Not even a thank you?"

"Shove it up your ass."

Shinya's chuckle faded as he drove off. The stairs were treacherous, how many hundreds of them were there? Probably not even close to one, but it sure felt like it. Waiting at the top for him was a building, exceedingly tall and in pristine condition. Many of the buildings were similar, though he was still in Shibuya. You could easily fit four people at a time through the double doors, and they were more than twice his size in height, already open.

A wide, open and well-lit lobby was there to greet him. Empty in terms of people, several paintings littering each walls and a few plants that looked like were only kind of taken care of. There was a reception at the very back, no one attending, and off to both sides were hallways. Instead of ringing the bell and waiting however many hours for someone to take his documents, he dumped them at the desk and took a left down the hallway. It was on them now, if they got lost it was their fault.

He looked around as he walked. It really hadn't changed since he'd been here to hand his resignation in two years ago. The dodgy lights amazingly still worked, the smell of cleaning product was still prevalent, contradicted by the clearly half-assed job someone had done.

The third door from the end, on the right. That was the one he opened, poking his head around to take a peek inside. Perfectly in the middle was a table, long enough to fit ten people on each side, though there was only sixteen chairs instead of twenty, only a couple of people occupying them. At the head of the table was the peak of the army, General Tenri.

Unlike his two children he had in the room, Tenri's hair was more akin to Shinoa's, a greyish purple, somewhat unkempt. Without fail, the man constantly reminded Naruto of a cyborg. Most of the right side of his face, including his eye, was covered by metal, connected at the back of his head by two thin strips that went above and under his left eye. He wore the JIDA uniform. His elbows rested on the table before him, white gloved fingers interlocked in front of his stoic face.

"You're early."

Usually that'd be a good thing, but Seishiro's condescending tone said otherwise.

"Blame your adopted brother." It didn't matter, but getting Shinya in some potential trouble would be nice. "He picked me up late and had to break all of the speed limits driving here." Tenri, Seishiro and Kureto. Three Hiragis and three superior officers. For a rank to be formally recognized within the army, that was the minimum audience. It had been these three that were present during his original promotion to Captain too, only with the addition of Guren. "This does bring back unwanted memories though."

He ignored Seishiro's eccentric eye roll.

"Naruto Uzumaki." The blond straightened at the General's voice, hands behind his back, his eyes on equal ground with Tenri's. If he didn't behave then his desired rank would undoubtedly be lowered, he'd seen plenty of officers demoted for not acting accordingly when the time called for it. He didn't want anything less than what he previously had, it was a comfy position with the right balance between ordering people around and being ordered around. "Lieutenant Colonel Guren Ichinose has informed me of your decision to return to the Japanese Imperial Demon Army and reclaim your former rank of Captain. I trust this information is accurate."

"Yes, sir."

Luckily for him, none of the people here had anything to do with squad placements for men under Guren's command. A five-man squad wasn't what he wanted to be part of again. He could sway Guren into agreeing, but none of these three would break protocol like that just for his wants.

"What made you come to this decision?" Kureto's red eyes bored into his own, his hands calmly resting over a thin light brown folder. "You were very adamant in your resignation two years ago."

Ah, time to tell a few white lies he supposed. He couldn't really say the reasons concerning Yuichiro, nor could he bring up the fact that a former experiment was now his subordinate. "I can only live with so little for so long. My time as a substitute teacher was hardly pleasing, either."

Well, that was only kind of a lie. The students had been entertaining little shits that never listened, and there was a few attractive co-workers to boot.

"Is that so." Naruto was grateful for Tenri's presence. If the man hadn't been there, Kureto's questioning would have been much more forceful, but he was behaving in the company of his father. The Lieutenant General undid the bindings on the folder, pulling out a small picture once opened and sliding it along the table in his direction. The once more soon to be Captain stepped forward and took it in his hands and examined it. "Does she look familiar?"

"Yes." Of course she did. Noin. In the same clothes he'd met her in, though much cleaner and without the wear and tear. "Guren killed her two days ago. She was an escapee, right? She managed to take a few students with her." His eyes met Kureto's once more. "Uh, does this have anything to do this, General?"

"No." Kureto gestured and the picture was slid back to him, promptly slid back inside the folder. "You were a witness. Your input was necessary."

What a load of shit. At least now he knew that he had to keep her actively hidden from the man, lest he risk getting his head lopped off.

"Moving on." Tenri's voice cut through the silent air like a hot knife would butter, straight and powerful. The man was scary, never failed in that department. As the General should be, Naruto mused, you couldn't be in charge of Japan's military and the head of the Hiragis while being anything even related to weak. Even with only one visible eye, his stare was intense. "Former Captain Uzumaki, your application to return to the military's ranks has been accepted. You will return to your former duties under Lieutenant Colonel Guren Ichinose within the week. Am I clear?"

"Crystal, sir."

* * *

"How'd it go?"

"Not a word."

"Haha."

Naruto sighed, his hand slipping away from the doorknob to his house. It didn't work, it twisted freely whenever he tried to open the door that way, so he used it as leverage to force it open instead. "What are you doing here Guren? Do you have something for me to do already?"

"Yeah." He sounded happy. Well, not a _happy-happy,_ it was more of a smug happiness, like he'd won an age old argument and couldn't get over it. "I'm sending you to Toshima as backup. There's a five man squad, they've been overrun."

"And I'd been hoping to get at least a day to myself, too." He shook his head and turned, leaning against his door. It creaked. If he put too much of his weight on it, it'd probably cave in. That'd be embarrassing. "How much?"

"Twice over, possibly more. There wasn't a definite number."

"I'm not taking a squad with me."

"I figured. But we'll talk more about that later." Guren gestured inside his house. "Go and make sure you're both prepared. You're leaving as soon as you're able."

"Both? She's coming with me? She doesn't even have a weapon."

"I'm sure you can find her one."

Naruto rolled his eyes, turning and forcing the door open as he always did. "Noin!" He called. "Get up. There's work to do."

Shuffling came from his room, followed by footsteps, then a pink head poked around his door. She had that stupid hat that rookies wore. The front slid down her face and she hurriedly pushed it back up in annoyance, huffing.

Cute.

"What?"

"That's the smallest one made and it still doesn't fit on your head?"

"Shut up."

"Are you dressed?"

She looked herself over behind the door frame. "Mostly."

"Then hurry up and finish. We're leaving."

He could hear her scrambling around his room after she'd ducked back inside.

"Ah, she's in your room." At least he'd known that this was coming, Shinoa was a bad influence on Guren. "What did you do with her in there?"

"Nothing."

"I wonder how Sayuri would react if I told her you're into that?"

"I'm not." Naruto frowned. "Are you trying to start a fight?"

"Well it has been a while. Maybe when you get back."

Noin zipped out of his room, standing straight and as tall as she could in the hallway. At least the rest of the uniform seemed to fit her just fine. Her pink hair was free, running down her back. The long-sleeved black coat and skirt hugged her small form. Her legs were bare, save for the knee-high black boots.

"Doesn't suit you in the least. Come on."

The door was slammed shut behind him. Luckily or unluckily, the large wall surrounding Shibuya was only a few hundred meters from his house. He supposed it was the price to pay for being a substitute teacher, someone who didn't matter. If Shibuya was attacked, then he'd be among the first to go. Their walk was fast, and it was humorous to watch Noin try and keep pace with them.

He didn't comment on it.

"A sergeant will be tagging along with you." Guren's right hand rested on the hilt of his sheathed blade as he moved. "She's the one who brought us this information to begin with, so don't complain. She's eager to regroup with her squad."

Well, that was kind of understandable. She could have gone to Shinjuku instead of Shibuya, it was closer to Toshima and telecommunications were set up between the two, but she'd came the extra way back here. It meant she was in a rush. The phone lines between Shibuya and Shinjuku worked, but were very touchy. It wasn't uncommon for them to disconnect for hours at a time, and the distance between the two wasn't extremely far. It helped that Guren was in Shibuya, too.

"Can she drive?"

"Thankfully. You sure can't."

"Shinya said the same thing."

"Don't compare me to him."

"But you're so alike."

"Not even close."

"Liar."

"Don't talk to me."

"Lighten up."

Guren waved his hand lazily towards a four-wheeler parked on the other side of the road, they were right by the gate to exit Shibuya. Naruto could see someone seated in the driver seat. Her dark hair was disheveled and prevented him from seeing her face. "Go on." Guren said. "She's waiting."

Naruto and Noin moved across the street and he lightly knocked on the driver's side window. It startled her and snatched her attention immediately, her expression still looked pained despite any effort to hide it. The window rolled down. "Hey."

"Captain Uzumaki?"

"Yeah. Is that what Guren told you? He must have been pretty confident, I've barely had my old position for an hour."

"Where's the rest of your squad?" Her lips twitched. "Are they late?"

"Nope, we're all here." He gestured beside him and the sergeant sat up straighter, peeking out the window.

"A rookie?"

"One that doesn't have a weapon yet, too."

The sergeant bit her lip, her grip on the wheel tightening. "Is there no one else? Just you and her? Can Lieutenant Colonel Guren really not spare any others?"

"He probably could." He shrugged. "But why would he? The moment we get to Toshima, no one else in the army is going to die." Smiling, he extended his hand through the open window. "Naruto Uzumaki. I'll be in command for this mission, I hope you'll follow."

He was fifteen when he first got his promotion to Captain, though his birthday had been just around the corner. Unsurprisingly, most of those older than him didn't like being ordered around by someone younger than they were. A month into it, he experienced his first major insubordination. It was during a raid in Ota, thirty-nine soldiers had been under his command, seven full squads and the four others in his own. They'd split up, two strike-forces with three squads in each, and the one left over had accompanied Naruto and his own squad. They'd all been ordered to return within the hour, no matter what happened.

If he had known that a progenitor by the name of Crowley had been present, then he wouldn't have split his numbers. But he didn't. And because of it, the majority of one of the strike-forces had been slaughtered, the few left were taken as meals. After completing their objective, the other strike-force had gained wind of what had happened. Every single person had a watch of their own, they knowingly went to intercept instead of returning on time.

Because of that the situation had spread over an entire day instead of the hour it was supposed to be. He'd known that many of them would die during the raid, but there'd only been three survivors out of forty in the end. He should have retreated the moment it went into the next hour. Instead, he'd stupidly gone back in, only to cause more deaths on his side.

Even back then, he could have dealt with three squads not returning, he would have returned successful with twenty-five men standing tall and proud. If that strike-force had returned as he'd ordered, that would have been exactly the case. Though he wasn't free of blame, either.

That entire day with Crowley had been a shitfest.

She gingerly grasped his hand. "Aiko Aihara, Sergeant."

He let go and made his way around the vehicle, speaking up to Noin. "You don't need help getting in, do you?"

* * *

 **Chapter 2 done!  
**


End file.
